tendon trouble

From: Suzanne

Dear Jessica, I bought a horse six months ago and have been riding him a lot. He is always sound and eager so I haven't worried about him, but the other day my vet came out to give fall shots and he mentioned that Cloudy has tendon trouble. He said "Is that leg giving him any trouble?" and I said "No, why do you think it would?" and he said "He's got a bowed tendon, you want to be careful with him." Jessica, I am so worried now, I haven't been able to get on my horse! I felt his leg and it isn't as smooth and straight as his other front leg, but I don't feel any heat in it, and he doesn't react painfully when I push it, although he is probably getting tired of me messing with it. But now I don't know what to do, whether I can ride my horse, if I can go on jumping, or what. I'm not sure I really even know what a bowed tendon is except that you can't ride and jump if your horse has one. How could Cloudy get hurt like that without me knowing, and why isn't he limping? He used to be a race horse and was turned out for about two years before someone bought him and trained him to jump, so do you think that the jumping caused this to happen? Help me please!

Suzanne

I wasn't there, but let me make a guess, and then you can ask the vet if this is what he meant. ;-)

I suspect that your horse has an OLD, COLD, SET bow, not a recent injury of any kind. If it were recent, Cloudy would be in pain, and there would be heat at the injury site, and your vet would NOT have been so casual about it. It sounds to me as though your vet was merely pointing out an old injury, and reminding you that you should be aware of its existence.

A bowed tendon is a damaged tendon -- the fibers have been torn, and they need to recover, which takes time. Twelve months would be a typical amount of time needed to heal. To achieve the best healing, horses are usually treated with anti-inflammatories, the leg is iced regularly, and the horse is kept on stall rest for a while. Then a program of hand-walking is begun so that the horse receives CONTROLLED exercise to help the healing process by encouraging the new tendon fibers to be laid down in the correct alignment. After this, the horse will be returned to very light ridden exercise and/or several months of pasture turnout! And while all this is going on, you'll be monitoring the tendon's progress by means of diagnostic ultrasound at regular intervals.

However, with many horses that come off the racetrack lame from a bowed tendon, the healing process is much simpler and less organized -- the horse is put in a field and left there for a year or two. ;-)

Talk to your veterinarian and ask him to evaluate the bow. I suspect that it happened AT the track, and was the reason that Cloudy spent a couple of years in a field before he was retrained for jumping. The jumping probably did NOT cause any more trouble -- if it had, the horse would have been lame then, or would be lame now. Since he isn't, it's probably fair to assume that the bow is old, and has healed. If your veterinarian says that it's not a problem, stop worrying and just enjoy riding your horse. The bow will always be a weaker point in your horse's leg, but as long as you do sensible warm-ups before you ride, check his legs for heat before and after every ride, and stay very aware of his comfort and soundness, you may never have trouble with it again. The precautions you should take are those you should take with ANY horse: check him, be aware of how he is feeling, and don't overwork him. Working a tired horse is asking for tendon trouble -- but this is something that you wouldn't do anyway, right? ;-)

If you want to know all about bowed tendons, I highly recommend a book by Tom Ivers. It's called "The Bowed Tendon Book," and it's sensible, clear, easy to read and understand, and will probably answer all of your questions. If you read this, learn about tendons, stay in touch with your vet, and keep monitoring your horse, there's a good possibility that Cloudy's bowed tendon will never cause him any more trouble.

Good luck!

Jessica

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